We Cut Cable: What This Means to Retailers
Our cable bill doubled. Apparently we had an introductory rate — which lasted more than five years. We had nearly 500 channels, and nothing ever seemed to be on, so we cut cable. Cold turkey. Even returned the cable company's DVR full of unwatched episodes of nothing in particular.
Those astronomical cable fees are primarily for sports channels, aka ESPN 1, 2, 3 to infinity. For me, watching the NFL on a Sunday afternoon is a step above slashing my wrists. I love a live baseball game, especially with a ballpark brat (extra sauerkraut) and a cold beer. Watching that same game on TV? Not enough brats in the world to keep my interest. Why pay close to $2,000 a year for cable sports that we don't watch? We'd get everything we wanted on Netflix, Hulu or some other service.
- Categories:
- Database Marketing
- Retail Stores
- Companies:
- Netflix
- People:
- George Hague
- Tour de France
- Places:
- Kansas City
A columnist for Retail Online Integration, George founded HAGUEdirect, a marketing agency. Previously he was a member of the Shawnee Mission, Kan.-based consulting and creative agency J. Schmid & Assoc. He has more than 10 years of experience in circulation, advertising, consulting and financial strategy in the catalog/retail industry. George's expertise includes circulation strategy, mailing execution, response analysis and financial planning. Before joining J. Schmid, George worked as catalog marketing director at Dynamic Resource Group, where he was responsible for marketing and merchandising for the Annie's Attic Needlecraft catalog, the Clotilde Sewing Notions catalog, the House of White Birches Quilter's catalog and three book clubs. George also worked on corporate acquisitions.
